Professional Stuntwomen Share Their Best Real-World Fitness Tips

Bethany Levy is barefoot in a black dress on the edge of a 10-story building. She can see most of downtown Los Angeles, although all she needs to spot is her landing mark 100 feet below. She swan-dives down, secured in a harness, rigged up to a crane, and somersaults in midair before slowing to a stop. It’s an exceptional day, even for a stuntwoman like Levy: She’s doubling for Beyoncé’s iconic fall in Lemonade.

Levy is part of a growing fleet of stuntwomen, thanks to a proliferation of female leads including Jessica Jones, Supergirl, and Wonder Woman. “Nowadays there are tons of women—and women of color—in leading action roles,” says Levy. “There’s plenty of work to go around.” This elite crew gave Glamour a peek at all the high-flying action and real-world dedication to fitness that it requires.

Stunt doubles have to perform a kind of magic trick: They make themselves disappear so you see only the actress, not them. It can be a challenge since they can’t pack on more muscle than the star they’re doubling for. “We walk a fine line between staying true to our own body and molding to someone else’s,” says Shauna Duggins, who has doubled for Melissa Benoist on Supergirl. And if you’re too lean, you risk injury. “You want to have muscle to protect yourself—you hit the ground hard in these stunts,” says Levy. That strength matters. Heidi Germaine Schnappauf, Jaimie Alexander’s double on Blindspot, injured her neck from a a high fall in 2015. “If I’d been even a little smaller or less strong,” she says, “I could have done some real damage, possibly something as severe as [paralysis].” Helena Barrett, who doubled for Amy Adams in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and is doing stunts in the upcoming Twin Peaks series, describes the way stuntwomen think about their bodies as a heightened version of what the average woman goes through every day: “In my job I constantly compare myself to other actresses. But I can’t be that skinny and be able to do backflips. That gives me self-assurance.”

These women also do everything their male counterparts do, but often in stilettos and always in skimpier outfits. “I’ve done multiple-stair falls in a dress, which means no padding,” says Duggins. “I did have a tailbone pad once—because I tucked it into my underwear!” And in a line of work where your body is your job, pregnancy is extra tough. “The joke in the stunt community is that you’re pregnant for five years,” Barrett says. “[Stunt coordinators] go, ‘Oh, she’s pregnant,’ and you’re like, ‘That was two years ago!’”

So they know self-care really matters. “This job is not just about doing the stunts but taking care of your body after you do them,” says Schnappauf, who has performed everything from drowning to being set on fire. Some require physical strength, sure, but all require restorative time. “Every week I see a chiropractor and do hot yoga and a recovery workout for my joints,” says Schnappauf. The stuntwomen we talked to apply that balanced approach to their diets too: “If I eat spaghetti today, tomorrow I eat a salad,” says Ming Qiu, who does her signature martial arts work on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. “I try for moderation. I feel healthier and happier when I go to work.” And those feelings are priceless. After all, says Duggins, “I get to go to work and beat up the bad guys and jump off buildings and get set on fire and race cars—and then go home and have a normal life. How awesome is that?”

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Their Fitness Tips:

Bethany Levy: doubled for Zoë Saldana in Star Trek: Into Darkness and Beyoncé in Lemonade

How she trains: Horseback riding, rock climbing, and snowboarding. “I enjoy the outdoors,” she says. The mix gives her the perfect amount of muscle tone.

How she eats: “I love raw kale chips and raw spicy beet chips. I also like seeds when I crave something crunchy or salty, to replenish my electrolytes.”

Kelli Barksdale: doubles for kids on shows like Modern Family and American Horror Story.

How she trains: Barksdale does gymnastics on a trampoline, which is “a great workout for balance [and] air awareness.” Plus, it’s easy on her joints.

How she eats: “I drink a lot of Kombucha [and] eat a lot of sushi,” and recently cut out dairy. “It made a huge difference,” she says. “I was so much lighter on my feet."

Ming Qiu: doubles on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Scorpion.

How she trains: She aims for four two-hour training sessions a week and sticks to martial arts, “a lot of stretching,” and “a little weight training.”

How she eats: For Qiu, it’s more about when she eats. “I try to finish dinner around 6:00 P.M. and not eat anything after,” she says.
“I feel better when I wake up.”